Revisited: t_time_info

[Jacob-DDdev]

A few years ago, someone asked for a better explanation of t_time_info within Analytics, ref, but the post doesn't have a thorough response other than mentioning that it comes from the web client (presumably Launch as versus processed web hits).

One can see through Data Feeds, etc., that this value isn't set on all web hits, so the questions are as follows:

1. Under what conditions does this value populate automatically?
2. Can this value be set manually through Launch?
3. If the setting of this value is arbitraty, like suggested by @Gigazelle , why does it exist? Is it just a Satellite holdover?

[Stewart_Schilling · Accepted solution]

Here's my understanding of t_time_info. 

t_time_info in the AA data feed maps to the beacon parameter, 't'.

The table below is from https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/implementation/validate/query-parameters.html?lang...

The 't' parameter is automatically set within AppMeasurement.js. Below is the specific line of code that does this (look within the a.Fa function). 

var b = new Date, d = "s" + Math.floor(b.getTime() / 108E5) % 10 + Math.floor(1E13 * Math.random()), f = b.getYear(), f = "t=" + a.escape(b.getDate() + "/" + b.getMonth() + "/" + (1900 > f ? f + 1900 : f) + " " + b.getHours() + ":" + b.getMinutes() + ":" + b.getSeconds() + " " + b.getDay() + " " + b.getTimezoneOffset()), e = a.T(), g;

When might t_time_info be omitted in the data feed? 

• It seems to me that any regular beacon that is constructed by AppMeasurement.js would set the 't' parameter. 
• One scenario where 't' might not be set would be when s.trackOffline is set to true.  (see https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/implementation/vars/config-vars/trackoffline.html#...)
• Another case might be when the Data Insertion API is used to load rows into AA. (see https://www.adobe.io/apis/experiencecloud/analytics/docs.html#!AdobeDocs/analytics-2.0-apis/master/b...)

Can this value be set manually through Launch?

Yes, via s.timestamp. (see https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/implementation/vars/page-vars/timestamp.html?lang=...)

If the setting of this value is arbitrary, like suggested by @Gigazelle , why does it exist? Is it just a Satellite holdover?

I think that this is answered above, but No, it has nothing to do with the TMS (Satellite, DTM, or Launch).  It has everything to do with Adobe Analytics and AppMesurement.js.  

[Jacob-DDdev]

Thank you, @Stewart_Schilling , for the comprehensive answer. I am still curious why offline tracking/data insertion doesn't also consider an approach which tracks timezone-based timestamps.